A two-person design studio I know ran the numbers on their prior year and found six jobs cancelled after work had already started — an average of $1,900 of unbilled hours each, $11,400 donated to clients who went quiet. Average time-to-payment on the jobs that survived: 47 days.
Nothing about their work was wrong. The order of operations was: work first, money maybe.
The 50/50 rule
Default: 50% on signature, 50% on delivery, before files are handed over. Adjust on shape, not charm:
- Under ~$1,500: 100% up front — chasing a second payment costs more than the second payment.
- Phased projects: 40% to start, 40% at first milestone, 20% on delivery. Nobody carries more than one phase of risk.
- Retainers: first month up front, always, invoiced with the signature.
- Big-company 30-day terms: accept them as the price of the logo, and price the float into the job.
Write the schedule onto the quote itself
A deposit asked later is a negotiation; a deposit written into the quote is administration:
Payment schedule: 50% ($2,400) reserves your project slot and is due with signature; the balance ($2,400) is due on delivery, before handover. Work begins when the first payment clears. Card link below — takes two minutes.
Three details that make it work:
- The payment link sits inside the quote, next to the schedule. The fewer hops between "yes" and "paid," the higher the deposit rate.
- "Reserves your slot" is the phrase that sells it. The deposit buys something the client wants — a place on a finite calendar — not a security deposit they tolerate.
- "Work begins when the deposit clears" — one sentence in the quote, repeated in the kickoff email. A soft version fills your calendar with unfunded work.
The two-sentence script for clients who resist
"That's our standard schedule — half to reserve the slot, half on delivery. If it's easier on your side, we can split it into three milestones so each payment tracks a delivery you've seen."
It never apologizes, it offers a shape alternative (milestones) rather than a size concession, and it gives the client an easy yes. If they still hesitate: milestone split → platform escrow → walk away. A client who won't put money behind the project at any shape has answered the qualification question for you.
The earned-deposit cancellation line
State the deposit's fate at signature, in one line: refundable minus booking fee before work starts; earned against work performed once work starts, remainder refunded in five business days. A cancellation policy written at signature is a fact; the same policy raised at invoice time is an argument.
One quarter later
Same studio: deposit rate 100% of new jobs (the schedule was simply on the quote with a card link — nobody ever had to be persuaded), cancelled jobs six a year → one (and that one's deposit covered the lost slot), time-to-first-payment 47 days → 3. One prospect walked at the deposit line — which is also information.
The full checklist — milestone shapes, the earned-deposit line, the five weekly numbers led by unfunded kickoffs — lives on the ops notes site: Upfront Deposit Checklist.
The incident-response half of small-team ops:
- The First 30 Minutes — free incident quick-start
- Ops Field Cards — 12 printable incident checklists — $4
- Ops Starter Kit — full incident-response kit for small teams — $14
- Ops Mega Bundle — all 5 kits in one download — $29
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